She's a mite whimsical in the brainpan.

Oct. 17th, 2011

Oct. 17th, 2011

I was going to watch Man of Honor once Baby Mousie went to bed but I saw that A Thousand Day Promise has just started!!!!!!! Yes, I realize, that the first ep is only available raw and I don't care!

Kim Rae Won is back! In a romantic melodrama! I adore those and they have become so infrequent as of late (the closest we got all year was Miss Ripley and it really wasn't one). I want angst! KRW breaks so beautifully (just watch the drama my icon is from for proof). And this is a story about a woman who is slowly losing her memory of everything, including the man she loves.

Plus, maybe it's a chance for me to finally like Su Ae!

Trailer, together with shirt-ripping:

Sorry, Man of Honor, Gumiho Girlfriend, Family Honor, A Thousand Kisses, The Holy Pearl, Tree with Deep Roots and Ikemen Desu Ne, you all have to wait!

I was going to watch Man of Honor once Baby Mousie went to bed but I saw that A Thousand Day Promise has just started!!!!!!! Yes, I realize, that the first ep is only available raw and I don't care!

Kim Rae Won is back! In a romantic melodrama! I adore those and they have become so infrequent as of late (the closest we got all year was Miss Ripley and it really wasn't one). I want angst! KRW breaks so beautifully (just watch the drama my icon is from for proof). And this is a story about a woman who is slowly losing her memory of everything, including the man she loves.

Plus, maybe it's a chance for me to finally like Su Ae!

Trailer, together with shirt-ripping:

Sorry, Man of Honor, Gumiho Girlfriend, Family Honor, A Thousand Kisses, The Holy Pearl, Tree with Deep Roots and Ikemen Desu Ne, you all have to wait!

I was going to watch Man of Honor once Baby Mousie went to bed but I saw that A Thousand Day Promise has just started!!!!!!! Yes, I realize, that the first ep is only available raw and I don't care!

Kim Rae Won is back! In a romantic melodrama! I adore those and they have become so infrequent as of late (the closest we got all year was Miss Ripley and it really wasn't one). I want angst! KRW breaks so beautifully (just watch the drama my icon is from for proof). And this is a story about a woman who is slowly losing her memory of everything, including the man she loves.

Plus, maybe it's a chance for me to finally like Su Ae!

Trailer, together with shirt-ripping:

Sorry, Man of Honor, Gumiho Girlfriend, Family Honor, A Thousand Kisses, The Holy Pearl, Tree with Deep Roots and Ikemen Desu Ne, you all have to wait!

Anyway, I've spent the last couple of days reading Kilgannon and its sequel, The Wild Rose of Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens and I totally recommend it!

The genre is period romantic fiction (not enough romance and too much history to qualify as a romance novel, but more of a focus on relationships and domestic matters than in a typical 'pure' historical novel) and I adore it.

The books are set in 1714-1716 and follow its protagonist, Mary Lowell, an upper-class Englishwoman who marries Alexander McGannon, a Scottish nobleman who throws his lot with the Old Pretender in the Rebellion of 1715.

The first book ends with the start of the Rebellion and the second book deals with its aftermath. I loved the first book, in which Mary and Alexander meet, court (since it's a historical novel and not a romance one, they are married by less than a halfway point), and she adjusts to the life in Scotland while trying to solve who is wishing to murder her husband. But I was obsessed with the sequel, in which Mary has to face the fact that her husband has picked the losing side and conducts a fight for his life, pulling on all her social connections and less savory ones, while knowing he might be executed at any time.

So, why do I love the books? The protagonists. Maybe it's because I've been reading books with overwrought people lately, but both Mary and Alexander are so normal. They are both well-adjusted, good people with a strong marriage, who just happen to live in some screwed-up times. One of the examples? Alex is a widower with two children from the past marriage and his dead wife is neither some tragic love story (I hate when heroes have some past great loves) nor some evil harpy - she's just a woman he married in an arrangement, and they didn't care for each other, but they didn't hate each other or anything. Mary and Alex actually talk when misunderstandings occur, they apologize, and they don't play games. Common sense! How I love it!

Alex is awesome - he's smart and tough and used to getting his own way but he's no high-handed alpha hero bossing the heroine. And I adore Mary. The novels are in first person and normally I dislike that, but here I do not. Mary is neither a Mary Sue nor the high-strung, shallow wish-fulfillment for the reader. She is a common-sense (yes, I am using that word again), smart, competent woman with a spine of pure steel. She is largely prosaic (one of the things she loves about her marriage is keeping accounts for her husband's estate), she listens to dictates of society because it would not be good t be ostracised, but can overturn them when it's important. And she really really loves her husband. If there was one thing that these books convinced me of is that. But when she thinks he's dead, she doesn't pull a Bella - she pulls herself together because she needs to take care of the children. She is fearless and awesome. I am not sure I'd want her for a buddy (she is not whimsical enough), but I'd love her for a mother or a sister. She'd have my back no matter what.

My favorite scene is when she is in the courtroom when Alex is convicted of treason. Mmmmmmmm.

Oh, and no spoiler, the books have a happy ending. Hooray! I would have been PISSED if Alex was executed and she was left to raise three children (his and theirs) alone.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good bit of romantic historical fiction, check these out.

Anyway, I've spent the last couple of days reading Kilgannon and its sequel, The Wild Rose of Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens and I totally recommend it!

The genre is period romantic fiction (not enough romance and too much history to qualify as a romance novel, but more of a focus on relationships and domestic matters than in a typical 'pure' historical novel) and I adore it.

The books are set in 1714-1716 and follow its protagonist, Mary Lowell, an upper-class Englishwoman who marries Alexander McGannon, a Scottish nobleman who throws his lot with the Old Pretender in the Rebellion of 1715.

The first book ends with the start of the Rebellion and the second book deals with its aftermath. I loved the first book, in which Mary and Alexander meet, court (since it's a historical novel and not a romance one, they are married by less than a halfway point), and she adjusts to the life in Scotland while trying to solve who is wishing to murder her husband. But I was obsessed with the sequel, in which Mary has to face the fact that her husband has picked the losing side and conducts a fight for his life, pulling on all her social connections and less savory ones, while knowing he might be executed at any time.

So, why do I love the books? The protagonists. Maybe it's because I've been reading books with overwrought people lately, but both Mary and Alexander are so normal. They are both well-adjusted, good people with a strong marriage, who just happen to live in some screwed-up times. One of the examples? Alex is a widower with two children from the past marriage and his dead wife is neither some tragic love story (I hate when heroes have some past great loves) nor some evil harpy - she's just a woman he married in an arrangement, and they didn't care for each other, but they didn't hate each other or anything. Mary and Alex actually talk when misunderstandings occur, they apologize, and they don't play games. Common sense! How I love it!

Alex is awesome - he's smart and tough and used to getting his own way but he's no high-handed alpha hero bossing the heroine. And I adore Mary. The novels are in first person and normally I dislike that, but here I do not. Mary is neither a Mary Sue nor the high-strung, shallow wish-fulfillment for the reader. She is a common-sense (yes, I am using that word again), smart, competent woman with a spine of pure steel. She is largely prosaic (one of the things she loves about her marriage is keeping accounts for her husband's estate), she listens to dictates of society because it would not be good t be ostracised, but can overturn them when it's important. And she really really loves her husband. If there was one thing that these books convinced me of is that. But when she thinks he's dead, she doesn't pull a Bella - she pulls herself together because she needs to take care of the children. She is fearless and awesome. I am not sure I'd want her for a buddy (she is not whimsical enough), but I'd love her for a mother or a sister. She'd have my back no matter what.

My favorite scene is when she is in the courtroom when Alex is convicted of treason. Mmmmmmmm.

Oh, and no spoiler, the books have a happy ending. Hooray! I would have been PISSED if Alex was executed and she was left to raise three children (his and theirs) alone.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good bit of romantic historical fiction, check these out.

Anyway, I've spent the last couple of days reading Kilgannon and its sequel, The Wild Rose of Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens and I totally recommend it!

The genre is period romantic fiction (not enough romance and too much history to qualify as a romance novel, but more of a focus on relationships and domestic matters than in a typical 'pure' historical novel) and I adore it.

The books are set in 1714-1716 and follow its protagonist, Mary Lowell, an upper-class Englishwoman who marries Alexander McGannon, a Scottish nobleman who throws his lot with the Old Pretender in the Rebellion of 1715.

The first book ends with the start of the Rebellion and the second book deals with its aftermath. I loved the first book, in which Mary and Alexander meet, court (since it's a historical novel and not a romance one, they are married by less than a halfway point), and she adjusts to the life in Scotland while trying to solve who is wishing to murder her husband. But I was obsessed with the sequel, in which Mary has to face the fact that her husband has picked the losing side and conducts a fight for his life, pulling on all her social connections and less savory ones, while knowing he might be executed at any time.

So, why do I love the books? The protagonists. Maybe it's because I've been reading books with overwrought people lately, but both Mary and Alexander are so normal. They are both well-adjusted, good people with a strong marriage, who just happen to live in some screwed-up times. One of the examples? Alex is a widower with two children from the past marriage and his dead wife is neither some tragic love story (I hate when heroes have some past great loves) nor some evil harpy - she's just a woman he married in an arrangement, and they didn't care for each other, but they didn't hate each other or anything. Mary and Alex actually talk when misunderstandings occur, they apologize, and they don't play games. Common sense! How I love it!

Alex is awesome - he's smart and tough and used to getting his own way but he's no high-handed alpha hero bossing the heroine. And I adore Mary. The novels are in first person and normally I dislike that, but here I do not. Mary is neither a Mary Sue nor the high-strung, shallow wish-fulfillment for the reader. She is a common-sense (yes, I am using that word again), smart, competent woman with a spine of pure steel. She is largely prosaic (one of the things she loves about her marriage is keeping accounts for her husband's estate), she listens to dictates of society because it would not be good t be ostracised, but can overturn them when it's important. And she really really loves her husband. If there was one thing that these books convinced me of is that. But when she thinks he's dead, she doesn't pull a Bella - she pulls herself together because she needs to take care of the children. She is fearless and awesome. I am not sure I'd want her for a buddy (she is not whimsical enough), but I'd love her for a mother or a sister. She'd have my back no matter what.

My favorite scene is when she is in the courtroom when Alex is convicted of treason. Mmmmmmmm.

Oh, and no spoiler, the books have a happy ending. Hooray! I would have been PISSED if Alex was executed and she was left to raise three children (his and theirs) alone.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good bit of romantic historical fiction, check these out.

One of the things I always loved was Alfred Noyes' poem The Highwayman and Loreena McKennitt's song rendition of it...

I am not really in a drama mood right now...I kinda feel like digging out my Sir Walter Scott instead. No idea why, but I want something period and English. Maybe I'll finish Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford (which would make the most awesome mini - why are there nowhere near as many English period shows as are Korean ones?)

One of the things I always loved was Alfred Noyes' poem The Highwayman and Loreena McKennitt's song rendition of it...

I am not really in a drama mood right now...I kinda feel like digging out my Sir Walter Scott instead. No idea why, but I want something period and English. Maybe I'll finish Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford (which would make the most awesome mini - why are there nowhere near as many English period shows as are Korean ones?)

One of the things I always loved was Alfred Noyes' poem The Highwayman and Loreena McKennitt's song rendition of it...

I am not really in a drama mood right now...I kinda feel like digging out my Sir Walter Scott instead. No idea why, but I want something period and English. Maybe I'll finish Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford (which would make the most awesome mini - why are there nowhere near as many English period shows as are Korean ones?)

Seeing that I am in the mood for something period and English, I dug out my DVDs of Robin of Sherwood, a 1980s BBC series that gave me my first OTP ever. I remember being seven years old, watching the dubbed episodes all tense with excitement, and then dragging one of my cousins to the attic to play Robin and Marian. Michael Praed's Robin and Jodi Trott's Marian were my first ever OTP - years before I even knew what an OTP was and, looking back, have informed a ridiculous amount of my current shippy preferences. I remember getting a long nightgown as a present for my eighth birthday and being excited because I could pretend it was Marian's dress.

I rewatched RoS decades later and realized it was a rare thing that held up from the days of my childhood. It remains my favorite take on the RH legend (only Parke Godwin's similarly dark take in two novels comes close) with its grime (Robin is no aristocrat here) and view of immutability of class and hopelessness and necessity of the fight. And yes, I am still obsessed with Robin and Marian.

Have a MV.

I think I won't rewatch the last ep of Series 2 though. Last time I did so, I had such bad hysterics, Mr. Mousie had to spend literally an hour comforting me and pointing out it's fiction.

Seeing that I am in the mood for something period and English, I dug out my DVDs of Robin of Sherwood, a 1980s BBC series that gave me my first OTP ever. I remember being seven years old, watching the dubbed episodes all tense with excitement, and then dragging one of my cousins to the attic to play Robin and Marian. Michael Praed's Robin and Jodi Trott's Marian were my first ever OTP - years before I even knew what an OTP was and, looking back, have informed a ridiculous amount of my current shippy preferences. I remember getting a long nightgown as a present for my eighth birthday and being excited because I could pretend it was Marian's dress.

I rewatched RoS decades later and realized it was a rare thing that held up from the days of my childhood. It remains my favorite take on the RH legend (only Parke Godwin's similarly dark take in two novels comes close) with its grime (Robin is no aristocrat here) and view of immutability of class and hopelessness and necessity of the fight. And yes, I am still obsessed with Robin and Marian.

Have a MV.

I think I won't rewatch the last ep of Series 2 though. Last time I did so, I had such bad hysterics, Mr. Mousie had to spend literally an hour comforting me and pointing out it's fiction.

Seeing that I am in the mood for something period and English, I dug out my DVDs of Robin of Sherwood, a 1980s BBC series that gave me my first OTP ever. I remember being seven years old, watching the dubbed episodes all tense with excitement, and then dragging one of my cousins to the attic to play Robin and Marian. Michael Praed's Robin and Jodi Trott's Marian were my first ever OTP - years before I even knew what an OTP was and, looking back, have informed a ridiculous amount of my current shippy preferences. I remember getting a long nightgown as a present for my eighth birthday and being excited because I could pretend it was Marian's dress.

I rewatched RoS decades later and realized it was a rare thing that held up from the days of my childhood. It remains my favorite take on the RH legend (only Parke Godwin's similarly dark take in two novels comes close) with its grime (Robin is no aristocrat here) and view of immutability of class and hopelessness and necessity of the fight. And yes, I am still obsessed with Robin and Marian.

Have a MV.

I think I won't rewatch the last ep of Series 2 though. Last time I did so, I had such bad hysterics, Mr. Mousie had to spend literally an hour comforting me and pointing out it's fiction.